Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his 15-year-old son were forced outside of their Dallas home, wearing only underwear.

Handcuffed and shaking in the cold wind, Balogun thought a misunderstanding must have led the FBI to his door on 12 December 2017. The father of three said he was shocked to later learn that agents investigating “domestic terrorism” had been monitoring him for years and were arresting him that day in part because of his Facebook posts criticizing police.

“It’s tyranny at its finest,” said Balogun, 34. “I have not been doing anything illegal for them to have surveillance on me. I have not hurt anyone or threatened anyone.”..

…Keighley made no mention of Balogun’s specific actions at the rally, but noted the marchers’ anti-police statements, such as “oink oink bang bang” and “the only good pig is a pig that’s dead”. The agent also mentioned Balogun’s Facebook posts calling a murder suspect in a police officer’s death a “hero” and expressing “solidarity” with the man who killed officers in Texas when he posted: “They deserve what they got.”

So the guy is “guilty” of being a jerk. From the sounds of it a big time jerk. But one can be a jerk in this country.

In a letter Balogun wrote to the Guardian from jail, he said he felt he had been “abducted” by the FBI, a “prisoner of war on free speech and the right to bear arms”.

Ugly speech is speech that must be protected. Otherwise what’s the point of the 1st Amendment? It should be noted also however that Balgon’s group apparently advocated for “revolutionary Marxism” and that “revolutionary Marxists” are not known for supporting the free speech rights of people with whom THEY disagree. But we are supposed to be better than the marxist control freaks.

It is true also that much of the Black Lives Matter critique is baloney. Cops are not just out there slaughtering black kids. That is simply not the case. But this is a speech issue and a gun rights issue, not a misguided propaganda issue. Balogun is a free person and should be treated as such.